The lost years

We walked into the new millennium, almost ten years ago, and life just seems to move on at such a rapid pace that some of the years seem as if they have never existed. We are in the mid 2009, and somehow, the last ten years have all, but been forgotten. The realization seems to hit hard when it dawns that it has been more than a decade since I have passed out of my tenth standard (grade). But, if you ask me when India last won the cricket world cup, I would say, Oh, that was about 17 years ago. It just does not seem like 25 years ago!!!!

The years best remembered are captured by events - small or big. The most unforgettable moment of my few years of existence always has to be that one moment - running to school, just across a couple of streets from home, to check out my tenth standard results. It just feels like yesterday. The other events always seem to revolve around that single focal point. Second PUC (twelfth), Bachelors and Masters seem like a culmination of efforts that have moved past at a 32X mode. It is pretty hard not to think about what happened post 2000. Had I been born in the sixties and was living in the nineties today, it would be easy to realize that X years have passed by. Since, my date of birth is many many years later, and with the pivot point being 2000, it is easy to focus on the years pre 2000. The years post 2000 seem as though they don't exist, maybe, because I have spent more years pre 2000. It would be fascinating to note how I can make that mental adjustment when the number of years pre 2000 becomes equal to the number of years post 2000.

As friends, we always seem to have that discussion about how life has moved on post 2000. All my fellow school mates, and college mates have moved on to occupy important positions in the corporate and academic world. It does seem strange, though, when you realize, how you have gone past the academic orientation of the school and college days, to take the important and not so important decisions at different stages, and are peeking at that common point of life, from across different points on the globe. No wonder reunions and meet ups are just so nostalgic, and it gives us the chance to relive those moments many many years later! In a fast paced life like ours, it is easy to lose track of time, but it's the moments that make up for most of the lost time. It would be fair to say that each of us have accumulated quite a many as a part of our growing up process!